Measure care to avoid needless deaths of vulnerable residents

Founder and director, Jonathan Papworth, discusses Person Centred Software’s research with University College London (UCL) on the impact of good care on life expectancy

Over 1,000 care home patients in England and Wales have died suffering from malnutrition, dehydration or bedsores, as reported in The Guardian*. The ONS, who provided the figures, acknowledged that “it is possible that poor care may have been a factor in some of the deaths”.

Professor Laurence Lovat, leading a study into the impact of good care on life expectancy at UCL, said: “The report by the Office of National Statistics may well underestimate the magnitude of the issue.”

Story continues below

Advertisement

At Person Centred Software, we are working with UCL to understand the impact of good care on residents’ wellbeing.

Professor Laurence Lovat explained: “Our research is looking at using big data analysis of routinely collected information by care home workers to identify patterns which predict development of malnutrition and dehydration.

“This will lead to simple early interventions to prevent this entirely avoidable cause of death in vulnerable care home residents.”

How can you as an operator support your staff with tools and practices to ensure good care? Moving to a paperless electronic system for all care records means the data you record is a proactive tool to drive quality, reduce risk and enable your service to be effective and responsive.

For instance, staff can accurately and immediately evidence fluids they have offered and what residents have drunk to greatly reduce the risk of dehydration. And by effectively monitoring fluids electronically, one care home group has also reduced falls by 33%.

To see first-hand the benefits of an electronic care system, book a demo of our Mobile Care Monitoring system by contacting us on 01483 604108 or h[email protected].

*Source: https://bit.ly/2Bypdf1